


Steadfast

by pocketmouse



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Exit Wounds, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-22
Updated: 2008-04-22
Packaged: 2017-10-02 03:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketmouse/pseuds/pocketmouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys POV, after Exit Wounds</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steadfast

Rhys is still at the police station, helping out, answering phones and making coffee, when his phone rings. It could be one of a hundred people, but the only person he wants to hear from right now is his wife, so when he looks at the caller ID and it doesn’t say 'Gwen,' he almost lets it go to voicemail. Then he realizes that it's one digit off from Gwen’s work number, and the phone is at his ear in a flash.

"Hello?"

"Rhys?" It's Captain Jack. He sounds funny over the line. Then again, half the communications in this city are out, he shouldn't be surprised by that.

"Yeah, it's me. Is Gwen all right?"

He can hear Jack take a deep breath over the line. "Yeah, she's -- she's not hurt. But she needs to go home now." Rhys is surprised by that. He thought he'd have to stay up all night, either helping Gwen here or somewhere else -- he stands up, already moving towards the door, brushing away persistent Andy, who watches him go with questions writ large all over his face.

"What's happened?" Gwen can't be all right if she wants to come home. Though — Jack said 'needs.' Maybe she's pushing herself too far? She always does that, Jack hasn't seemed to stop her yet.

Jack doesn't answer for a moment, and his heart is in his throat.

"Toshiko and Owen are dead."

Oh. He nearly stops for a second, because he wasn't expecting that. Even with all of the destruction tonight, he hadn't... The pain is audible in Jack's voice. He starts the car, and peels out into the street. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

* * * 

Jack is waiting for him outside, on the steps of the Plass. As Rhys approaches, he can see the other man's eyes are red-rimmed, and his face has that blotchy look of someone who's been crying. He looks miserable -- there's mud clinging to his ears and his hairline as well.

With a start Rhys remembers there's only five of them. Harwood's has fourteen employees, and he remembers how upset he was when Leighton was killed.

"Christ, I'm sorry, Jack." He reaches out to put a hand on Jack's shoulder, and before he realizes it, Jack has wrapped himself around him, his face pressed into his neck.

Well, he wasn't expecting this. But then Jack takes this shuddering breath like he's trying not to cry, and okay, yeah, maybe a boss has got to be the tough guy around his employees, but he can't be like that all the time, right? And Jack's shagging that Ianto bloke, so who’s he got, eh?

Rhys lets him hug him for a minute, and then Jack pulls away with a sniff, pressing his palms to the corners of his eyes. "Sorry, sorry, I forgot, wrong century."

"It's all right, it's been a terrible day," he mutters, and Jack laughs bitterly.

"You don't know the half of it."

Jack leads him inside, and Gwen and Ianto are leaning against each other on the couch, identical lost expressions on their faces, like bookends.

"Take her home," Jack says, a whisper in his ear, oddly pleading. "Make her better."

Gwen crumples into him when he sits next to her on the couch, pressing a kiss into her hair. She clings, which scares him, she is never clingy, not even that night six months ago when she came home wild-eyed and desperate, convinced, she later told him, that he had died.

She is silent as he leads her out. Jack's face is haunted, grief-stricken, behind him. He realizes that some part of Jack is saying goodbye to Gwen.

And right now, he doesn't know what to think about that.


End file.
